ABSTRACT

This chapter presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows how England and Scotland's respective traditions of metrical psalm singing grew, between 1552 and 1640, from the original collection of 44 versifications by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins. Scotland retained the ethos of the Genevan ideal of a tune proper to each psalm, and, having no historical tradition of allegiance to Cranmer's Prayer Book, initially rejected the idea embraced by Day of expanding the textual repertory with 'canticles and hymns'. Of crucial importance to the 'melodic stability' of the Scottish psalter was the fact that the metrical psalms were a central part of the official Scottish liturgy. For huge swathes of English and Scottish society at all levels, metrical psalmody was one of the salient features and indeed one of the cornerstones of spiritual and musical life, and as such, it deserves the sustained attention of historians and musicians.